7Gypsies Artist Printer's Tray Photo Collage

Been a little under the weather this past week. I ended up not going to work for a few days to avoid 'infecting' my coworkers with what I have. "What" exactly it is could be a mix between allergies and a full-blown cold. All I know is that I've made the makers of Dayquil, Nyquil, Claritin and Kleenex very rich. I decided to craft a little and made this Artist Printer's Tray collage for my husband's desk at work. I added a few gears to give it a little 'steampunk' look. I didn't want to overdo it since it is going on a desk at work.

The papers I used were by 7Gypsies and Graphic 45. The embellishments are by Tim Holtz and Paper Studio.

I love this clock. The hands do turn, but I think we'll keep it at 5:00 since it's always five o'clock somewhere.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed day!

We're celebrating birthdays galore!

Artygirlz has been celebrating it's one year birthday this past week. With a lot of my friends and family celebrating birthdays, I thought I'd share this altered Starbucks Frapuccino carrier and bottles that I made to fit the Artygirlz Challenge this week, as well as for celebrating my friend, Becky's, birthday. She is a "closet" goth. She and I both like Batz Maru (a Hello Kitty! character) and she and I like tatoos. Now, I don't have a tatoo on my body, but I do want to get one someday. I just haven't figured out what the design I want to get. Last month, when Becky, Deb, Lori and I went out for Deb's birthday. the girls decided they all wanted to get body piercings. I already have my nose pierced, and my ears are pierced in three places, so I declined to get any more piercings. Becky got her nose pierced in the same spot where mine is pierced. Deb got her ear cartillage pierced; and Lori had her belly button pierced. LOL! It made for an interesting night, to say the least. Before we went to the tatoo / piercing place, we ate dinner at a really nice restaurant and had martinis. Then, we went to get the piercings done. Afterwards, we continued to celebrate at the Cheesecake Factory. Well, Becky's birthday is coming up, and she wants to get tatoos. LOL! I have told her that I will go with her, but I don't plan on getting inked that night. For now, I hope she'll enjoy the dark chocolates that I've placed in each bottle. The skull image is a "dollar" stamp by Imaginisce. The Happy Birthday 'banner' is by Purple Onion Designs; and the goth girl is by Zettiology. Papers are by Rusty Pickle. Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to post a comment for my Blog Candy Giveaway for this week.

Mini Pizza ~ Nugget Box

Here's a twist on the mini pizza box. I combined it with the cute Hershey's Nugget boxes I've seen on many creative blogs. I don't have exact measurements, as I just made this up as I went along. I took the height of the nugget (it's approximately 3/4" high). Then, I took out eleven nuggets and arranged them as I wanted them to fit into my box. I took my ruler and measured length and width, and that's how I figured out the dimensions of my box. If you know how to make a 'basic box' then you can pretty much improvise how large you would want your pizza box to be. I also took into consideration the size of my stamped image. Isn't this one of the cutest Halloween images you've seen? I was able to purchase it for the low, low price of $3.00 on an online "garage sale" (no, not eBay). It was an unmounted stamp, so double the good fortune for me. As you can see, I used my Fiskars Threading Water punch on the sides of the box (and on the back, also, but you can't see it). I added pop-dots beneath my stamped image (colored with COPIC markers, by the way), and threaded ribbon beneath the stamped image and under the box. I had to work quickly to photograph the outside of the box, whie still outdoors, as the sun was starting to shine down on my table and causing quite a glare. I took the photo of the nuggets inside my house, so I apologize if it's darker than the other pictures. I had so much fun making this. Quick and simple. Thanks for stopping by!

My Ultimate Summer Collage Project!

This has been one of THE MOST fun summer projects I've given myself. I'm hosting a collage swap on the Stamp Shack. It's called "Get Your Collage On! Define yourself." Each of the eight folks in my swap are to use a coaster, a piece of mattboard or chipboard, and we're to alter it. I also gave each person a LONG list of supplies they have to incorporate into their collage. At least five items from the list must be used on each collage "page." We design our pages to best reflect who we are, and what we love. For my pages, I've used rubber stamps, stickers, metal embellishments, paper flowers, chains, tags, sewing/stitching, paper clips, lots of gem "bling", skeleton leaves, buttons, a not-so-great (but it's the most decent) photograph of me, resin embellishments, ribbon, lace and lots and lots of dimensional glaze. This was also a fantastic way for me to purge a ton of hoarded embellishments. I'd say approximately six hours of work went into this project, from conceptualizing what I was going to do with each page, to rummaging through my embellishments, and finally, to putting them altogether. All that is left for me to do is to add a large eyelet on the upper left hand corner. We will be attaching all of our pages through this eyelet. I cannot wait to receive everybody else's page and put this little book together.

I made card candy! {Tutorial on how to make your own.}

I joined a Card Candy swap on the Stamp Shack. I've never done this before, so I'm venturing into unchartered territory. I thought it through, and this is what I came up with. I heat embossed all of my images. I just think they look much more "professional" and "finished" this way. I used a coin image from Stampin Up, a chrysanthemum and bird image from Curtis Uyeda. On the topper, I used a cherry branch image by Stampendous. The Chinese characters says "candy." I went on Babelfish and looked it up. LOL! Then, I just copied it and handwrote the characters on my topper.
I took the pop-dots of the sheet including the backing beaneath the pop-dot. At this point, you will only peel off one side of the pop-dot and stick that to the back of your "candy." On the other side of the pop-dot (the paper side that you didn't peel off, you'll want to add just a smidgen of dimensional glaze. If you don't have dimensional glaze, some tacky tape will work on the paper. It is very important that you don't stick the tacky side of the pop-dot directly onto the acetate. If you do this, you won't be able to peel off your card candy to use it.

Arrange them on your acetate or transperancy sheet.

This is what it looks like from behind.

Slip it into your clear envelope, and Voila! As you can see, there's some background paper in the envelope. That is a dragon background image by Stamp Out Cute. The recipient can use it as a background for a card or an ATC. I thought it would make a neat background for the candy, and it slips in the envelope right behind the acetate sheet. Add a topper to your bag, and you're all done!

Surprise treat for my husband

When my husband and I were dating, we would send each other countless (I mean COUNTLESS) letters, cards and photographs. This was during the dinosaur age (before email, cell phone, texting, and IM's). We had to rely on snail mail, AT & T and Sprint to help us stay in touch. He was attending the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs; while I was going to college at San Jose State University, in California. The distance did prove to be difficult, many, many times, but we remained devoted to each other; and we looked forward to receiving mail from each other every week. Last night, before my husband came home from work, I worked as fast as I could to put together this little altered clear pail for him. I tucked a handwritten letter inside the card, just as I used to do when we were dating all those years ago.
I covered the clear pail with scrapbook paper (the Paper Studio, found at Hobby Lobby), and whipped up a really simple card for him. I did add ribbons; and I had to think twice about this one since I didn't want it to look feminine. But, as you can see from the photographs, the ribbons say "I love you" and that pretty much sums it all. The candy inside are Hershey's Hugs and Kisses. I left it on the dining table for him to find. I always leave the house for work before he does, so this will be a nice surprise for him to find this morning. Just a little reminder of how much he means to me.

Origami Day!

Isn't this the cutest little box? I combined two tutorials for this Strawberry-in-a-box project! The template for the box was created by the owner of the Stamp Shack., Sherry Graves. The template for the strawberry came from Michelle Ueligitone, the artist behind Mushi's Creative Inspirations . It's so awesome because the strawberry fits perfectly inside the box.

Inside the strawberry, I was able to snuggly fit two Hershey's kisses. I stamped the outside of the box with the strawberry stamp from Stampin Up's "Tart and Tangy" set. That was probably the hardest part of this entire project since I had to color the strawberry and leaves repeatedly. It wasn't really "hard." It was just time-consuming. The top of the strawberry was cut from a flower punch. I thought it would be awesome to run the berry through the Cuttlebug, using the Swiss Dots folder. Thanks for stopping by!

How much fun does one person deserve to have?

Seriously? I had a BLAST creating these projects for my friend's birthday, which is this week. (That's OK that I post them here, since she doesn't even know that I have this blog). It's my friend, Deb's, birthday on Friday, so I thought I'd surprise her with a few goodies.
The best part about creating the projects you see here is that I didn't run out and buy anything new. Everything I'd used was something that I already had. I take that back. I bought the cute little pen at WalMart. It cost me 25-cents. But, all of the materials you see here came from things in my stash.

I thoroughly enjoyed creating this little bucket of candy. I had this clear bucket sitting on my shelf for about three years now. I bought it in Kansas City, thinking it was something that I was going to use quickly, but I didn't. It sat on my shelf forever. I was thrilled to have the chance to use it now. I cut out the window using my Nestabilties. Inside, I filled the bucket with Dove candy. I know she doesn't like York Peppermint Patties, and that seems to be candy of choice by folks who like to add a scalloped circle to their candies. I punched out the scallops out of brown paper, added a layer of patterned paper to match the outside; stamped a greeting out of my Stampin Up Riveting set. I added some ric-rac on the outside (to cover a few minor imperfections); tied some ribbon to the handle, and voila!

The lid was created using layers of scalloped circles (Nestabilities) and cut-out circles using my Colluzle. I 'popped' the inner scallops and circles with mounting foam, just to give it a little dimension.

Here's the little card that I made for her. The image is by Stampin Up. You can't really see them, but I added some 'gem stones' on her ears for earrings. I stamped her with dye ink and colored her with Copic markers

I made her this little Post-It note holder. I found the instructions through the Stamp Shack; but it was originally posted on Angie Kennedy Juda's blog Stampin Academy. It uses the Bind-It-All. I found the cute little pen at WalMart (in their back-to-school section). I used an old polymer stamp by Daisy D and a few Hero Arts stamps on this one.

I even made a little pocket on the inside of the book. This way, she can refill the book, rather than just throwing it away.

What every stamper needs

I made several of these to send out for a swap on The Stamp Shack. The Vintage Stamp is hilarious, isn't it? It's part of a stamp set by Sunday International. I had picked it up out of a clearance bin (yes, a clearance bin) in a stamp store in Kansas City. I believe there are some 12 stamps in the set. All of the stamps in this set are funny (did you read the nutritional value of this chocolate bar?) I colored the image with COPICs. The sentiment on the tag is by Stampin Up (Oh So Sweet). I plan to write a little message on the back of the tag.

Thank you card using one of my new homemade blings

I made this realy simple card with one of the blings I made yesterday. I guess I don't have a better word than 'bling'. It's not fancy enough to call an 'embellishment' so I guess 'bling' will have to suffice. All papers are by Basic Grey (Infuse). Inside, I used a flourish stamp by Rhonna Farrer. "Thanks.....a bunch!" are Making Memories rub-ons.

I made my own bling!

I've been admiring the K & Co bling for quite some time. After studying them week after week, I was finally inspired to try my hand at making some. I used a variety of Marvy paper punches, EK Success punches, and even my Crop-a-dile, layering them with pop-dots and sticker bling I bought from the Target Dollar Spot a year ago. This was so much fun and so exciting! The paper I used came from a Basic Grey pack (Infuse). I am loving this process! I can't wait to use my new "bling" on greeting cards!

Pocket Box

Here is my entry for this week's "Gold Challenge" on Mixed Media Monday. This is a "pocket box." I should've known better than to use cardstock. It was quite a challenge to fold. But, it in the end, it looked OK, I suppose. I gold embossed black cardstock and also gold embossed a fleur de lis. The second picture is of the pocket 'opened up.' You could slip a note in the pocket. You could attach this to a gift, or slip a gift inside the pocket (like cash, or something like earrings or a chain necklace.) I think the next time I attempt this, I will use regular paper. It's so much easier to fold.

A Multi-Tasking Project

This week's challange on Saturday Stampers is to incorporate projects from Gothic Arches (Friends challenge); Mixed Media Monday's button challenge ;Fluffy Fatbottom's Twisted Tuesday's Button Wisdom challenge ; Wednesday Stamper's Diamond challenge; and Theme Thursday's Chalk challenge. To create the "diamond" background, I first inked up a harlequin stamp with white chalk ink and stamped it on glossy cardstock (it's really important that you use glossy cardstock. You want the ink to sit on the surface of the paper a little longer. If you used regular cardstock, it will absorb into the paper too quickly.) Then, I quickly ran a very wet burnet sienna chalk ink pad over the stamped area. Afterwards, I quickly wiped off the burnt sienna ink. The white chalk ink acts as a resist. Isn't it neat? I'm not sure if the sentiment is very clear. My button wisdom is "We remain fond friends because we know when to button it up." Thanks for stopping by!

How Eliza explained to Theodore why it's alright to be addicted to chocolate

This is my entry to this week's Gothic Arch Challenge. The theme for this week is chocolate. I hope you find it funny. (I was trying to come up with something funny for this challenge). Thank you for stopping by!

Garden Collage

This is a project I'm submitting for a magazine. The image of the little girl and the birds' eggs are from Nancy Doreen (Vintagestamper.....look on the right sidebar for a link to her blog). I attached lace to the bottom of this 6 x 6 piece, and a vintage wire-hanger on the top. The paper is stamped with various images from Stampin Up and Stampinton & Co.

Fairy Tag

I read in a book recently that you should try to create first thing in the morning. That's when your mind is "fresh" and uncluttered. That is true for me. I think I produce my most creative pieces when I work on them first thing in the morning. My mind doesn't feel it needs to force the process. I just let it wander. This morning, I knew I had to work on Ellie W.'s CJ page. Her theme is "Fairies." I knew that I wanted to use this stamepd image (Stampers Anonymous) and I wanted to color in the wings with markers. All the rest just happened along the way. I tore strips of scrap paper and glued them down on the chipboard tag. Then, I decided it needed some fibers. After I glued down the fairy with pop dots, it stil looked plain, so I added the glitter to her wings and hat, and dimensional glaze to her cute Mary Jane shoes and pom-pom on her hat.

Once upon a midnight dreary.....

It's that time of year again, when we embrace all that is spooky. When it's OK to fright and be frightened. I took the opportunity to work on my pages for the Circle Journal Swap I'm participating in. These are for Mary C.'s book. She asked that we create a "haunted house" and include a photograph of ourselves somewhere on the house. She also asked that we decorate both sides of the page. I used some stamps on this one, stickers, rub ons, and of course, computer generated images and text. Happy Halloween!!

Collage Challenge: Day Two

Are you ready for the next step?

OK.....now that you've got your paper images picked out, it's time to glue them onto your background. I use gel medium to adhere my image to the background paper. After you've glued down your images, let it completely dry before moving onto the next step.

Now, it's time to add crayons to your collage. Draw around the border and around your images. Use a variety of colors. If you use the water soluble crayons, you'll be able to smudge the colors and blend them in nicely. You should try to blend the colors between your collage papers and the background so that your images don't appear to "just sit" on the background paper.

OK....now for the last step.....journaling. Use your fine point sharpie pen to write on your page. You can also use your Sharpie to draw and doodle. A word of caution....don't draw over the crayon. You'll end up "clogging" the tip of your sharpie. Let the black ink dry. Then, go back with your white Pen-Touch pen and fill in the open space of your letters. This will give your leters added interest and contast.